Expert advisory committee to assist EC

An expert advisory committee comprising, among others, business leaders Dammika Perera, Krishan Balendra and Ranjit Page, and several eminent economists and university professors has been appointed by the President to advise the recently formed Economic Council.

The new advisory committee also included business leaders like Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, Vish Govindasamy, S. Renganathan, Suresh De Mel and

Prabhash Subasinghe.

They attended a meeting of the Economic Council held earlier this week to discuss the current economic situation and remedies to the dollar crisis.

The Cabinet of Ministers had approved a proposal to appoint a 14-member advisory committee comprising business leaders and academics to assist the 11-member Economic Council (EC).

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed the Economic Council earlier this month amid a worsening economic crisis.

The Economic Council announced on March 09 was appointed to speed up economic growth and is chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The council is empowered to review local economic policies including macroeconomic policies.

It will focus attention on the behaviour of the national economy since the pandemic, economic restructuring and major development projects that directly affect the economic and financial policies of the government, the Cabinet office announced.

The Council will issue guidelines to relevant ministries, departments and statutory institutions to implement government decisions for the approval of the cabinet, it added.